Wendy Rose Gould

We’ve officially made it to fall, dear shoppers, and we couldn’t be happier. Be gone, humid days that bring an onslaught of frizz and sweat. This week’s roundup reflects the change in seasons accurately.

First, we’re featuring the Kleinfeld Bridal Sample Sale, where prices start at $799. Since it’s the off season for weddings, you can expect to find discounts on bridal gowns moving forward both at this sample sale and others. Also featured this week is the Rent the Runway Sample Sale, which promises discounts up to 90% off gowns you can wear at all those upcoming holiday parties. And then there’s the Paul Smith Sample Sale, which features not only clothing for men and women, but lots of giftable items perfect for those holiday shopping lists.

Kleinfeld Bridal September Sample Sale

Do you hear wedding bells in the distance? Then either you or someone you know is getting hitched… Drag yourself, or whomever, to the Kleinfeld Bridal September Sample Sale and get yourself a fine deal on sample dresses sized 6 to 28. Dresses are up to 70% off the original price and start as low as $799. Oh, and bonus: accessories are 25% off, get one 35% off. That includes bridesmaids gifts, purses, shoes, belts, jewelry and more.

WHEN: 9/29; Tue (4:30-7). No appointment necessary.
WHERE: 110 West 20th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, New York, NY. 646-633-4300.

Rent the Runway Sample Sale

Heyoo! It’s another Rent the Runway Sample Sale, where you’ll find prices on designer dresses and accessories that cannot be beat anywhere else. The dresses are gently used via the normal Rent the Runway website, making them super duper cheap compared to the original prices. In fact, prices are marked up to a whopping 90% off retail.

WHEN: 9/29 – 10/4; Tue (11-8), W-Th (10-8), F-Sat (10-7), Sun (10-3)
WHERE: 260 Fifth Avenue, between 28th and 29th Streets, New York, NY 10001. 212.725.5400.

Paul Smith Sample Sale

The Paul Smith Sample Sale is an event for both him and her, so bring another person along, or perhaps shop with something in mind for a friend, family member or partner. The sale boasts up to 75% off retail on clothing, shoes and accessories. Also up for sale are vintage books, ceramics, collectibles and homeware. Definitely a place to hit if you’re getting ahead on that holiday shopping list.

WHEN: 9/29 – 10/4; Tue (3-8), W-F (10-8), Sat (10-6), Sun (11-4)
WHERE: 151 Wooster Street, between Houston and Prince Streets, New York, NY.

By Wendy Rose Gould

Image Credit: RenttheRunway.com

There’s an app for everything these days, and as sensible fashion and beauty lovers, we feel obligated to learn everything about those that serve us best in that department. Here are three retail-related apps that have the potential to save you oodles and oodles of cash.

SuperDuper

Everyone loves a good dupe (beauty-speak for identical products), especially when that means you can save heaps of money at the end of the day. One area of the beauty world where price doesn’t always correlate with quality is nail polish, where prices for a single polish can be as much as $50 a pop. And seriously, if Essie and Bourjois polishes were good enough for Princess Kate’s wedding day, drugstore polish is good enough for the rest of us.

Enter new app “SuperDuper”, available on iOS for free, which reveals the best, most accurate dupes for high end polishes. It reveals the best, under $10, “dupes” for luxe designer nail polishes from Chanel, MAC, Christian Louboutin, Dior, NARS, Tom Ford, and YSL. Skeptical at first, we tested SuperDuper’s dupe for Christian Louboutin’s limited edition Scarabée II that comes with a heart-wrenching $50 price tag. The winning dupe? Covergirl’s Teal on Fire, which costs $45 less was an exact match.

We appreciate that the SuperDuper team tests every potential match on nails that take a typical beating and only accept true color and quality matches. You’ll find many more dupes on the app, and with fall officially here, we can’t wait to check out their subs for Tom Ford Plum Noir, the classic Dior Rouge, and the ever-popular Chanel Particuliere.

Pretty In My Pocket (PRIMP)

Let’s say you’re standing in the drugstore aisle, or you’re salivating over the products at Sephora or Ulta. Maybe you’re torn between two different items, or maybe you’re trying to determine if a splurge is worth it. The Pretty In My Pocket app is here to help.

Simple take the product, or products, up for potential purchase and scan their barcode. You’ll instantly see loads of product reviews and even swatches from other app users, which includes some notable beauty bloggers. From there, you can read the pros and cons and determine whether the product is a slam dunk or a womp womp.

You’ll save money on products that would have left you wanting. And hey, that’s money you can spend on products that’ll actually serve you well. We can totally get behind that.

Slice

One of the worst feelings in the world is finally throwing your cash down on an item you’ve been watching, only to check back days or weeks later to see that it went on sale. Insert angry fists shaking at the sky. Or what about those products you buy that get recalled. In those cases, you may not even realize there was a recall, causing you to use either a subpar product and/or lose out on a refund.

The Slice app aims to calm your mind. It creates a protected database of all your receipts and product purchases. First, the app tracks your purchases as they’re shipped to your door, sending you notifications. Most importantly, though, they send you friendly, informative alerts if a recent purchase has undergone a price adjustment or was recalled. The best part is that you don’t have to do anything — the app does the “haggling” with the retailer for you. This, of course, means savings for you, and all without requiring an extra mental energy.

Other things the app does: streamlines returns, frees up your inbox and tracks your spending (we could all use a little bit of this).

By Wendy Rose Gould

Life can get messy sometimes. Really messy. That dream job you interviewed for may not have panned out, you may feel like you’re barely afloat where finances are concerned, your friendships could be in serious need of resuscitation, your family may be driving you berserk, and your relationship with your SO–once seemingly indestructible–could be falling apart at a rate faster than you can patch it up. Let’s all just let out a collective, heavy sigh for the ongoing disequilibrium life delivers on the regular.

The truth is that you won’t likely find a quick fix to some of the more difficult curveballs hurled your way. Ultimately, you’ve got to get right to the source of the matter and work it out like you would a knot in your back. That takes time, of course, but there are things you can do meanwhile that can actually improve your overall sense of happiness and inner serenity. And no, we’re not talking about a shopping spree or pedicure (which, OK, may temporarily placate you).

Tidying Up Your Space, Literally

Even if you’ve convinced yourself that you’re able to live amidst clutter — that you even thrive in the chaos — you’ll still benefit from cleaning up your space. And by space, we mean every physical area in which you spend any time at all. That includes your office cubicle, your car (should you own one), and, of course, your home.

Tiny NYC apartments are particularly susceptible to clutter, especially if you’ve got roommates and especially if you’re busy, which is likely the case. Think about the clutter in those spaces. Maybe it’s dog hair, cat hair, dirty dishes, disheveled laundry (both clean and dirty) piled on the floor and furniture, last week’s leftovers in the fridge collecting mold, mail you’ve been meaning to open for weeks, clogged shower drains, wet and musty towels, bedsheets that haven’t been washed in ages, spider guts smeared against the wall that you failed to clean up post-freakout, dresser drawers full of makeup or notes or junk… you get the picture. Doesn’t the thought of it all overwhelm you? Living in it may be affecting you more than you realize, even if you’ve only got a few of the aforementioned dirties to deal with.

Turns out, unkempt quarters and accumulating clutter can negatively impact you. The solution, then, it seems, is to remove it from your life. You may not be able to take full control over your career forecast or friendships at this point, but you can certainly take control of the tangible clutter you’re dealing with.

Gretchen Rubin, author of “The Happiness Project” and “Happier at Home” — both instant New York Times bestsellers — says that even the smallest adjustments or actions can made a difference in your mood. For example, making the bed, reducing excess of anything (cups, vases, shirts, shoes, ketchup packets), and clearing even one shelf or organizing one drawer are all ways you can increase your overall happiness.

If you’re unsure of where to start, especially if you want to tidy your home from bathroom to entryway, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, is a good go-to. It’s another best selling book, this one by Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo. It “takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again.”

Purge Your Belongings, Lift the Weight

Don’t just stop at tidying, either. Purge, baby, purge. Even if you consider yourself a sentimentalist, a wee hoarder, a collector, just try to cast aside that, “What if I need it?” mentality and let go.

A good rule of thumb is that if you haven’t used or worn something in six months, and you don’t see yourself doing so in the next six months, toss it in the donate bin. It may be hard to part with items you’ve been sitting on (perhaps literally) for years, but getting rid of them can be incredibly satisfying in the end.

As a personal aside, I’ll tell you that whenever I’m going through a particularly difficult issue or major life change, which seems to come about once every couple of years, I’ll seriously purge. The process feels like an emotional cleansing of my soul, allowing me to start anew. I literally feel a weight lifted off of me. When my space is clean, when I’ve dropped off that bag at the local thrift store, and when I come back home and sit in a clean, less densely-decorated and stuffed room, I feel accomplished and, somehow, freer.

And a bonus you may not consider: There’s money to be made on those items collecting dust. Maybe it’s an old cell phone that’s worth a Benjamin or two, or it’s a pile of clothing you could send off to a website such as ThredUp, Tradesy, eBay or PoshMark, or maybe you could list an item or two on Craigslist or a selling app, such as OfferUp, Close5 or Gone.

Tell us — when’s the last time you purged your belongings? When’s the last time you dedicated an entire weekend to cleaning and purging and tidying?

By Wendy Rose Gould

Welcome to part two of our “walk in your favorite NYC characters’ footsteps” series, where we give you the deets on popular TV show hangouts. We think it’s a fun way to spend an afternoon — or even a day — and potentially makes for a great date idea. You’ll also score brownie points with out-of-towners coming to visit you, especially if they’re major fans of any of the shows below.

Sex and the City

It’s a no brainer to include this popular TV show. I mean, it probably gets at least partial credit for making people think of NYC as such a sexy and cosmopolitan place.

Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte were all over the big apple, but so many of their hot spots were in Manhattan itself. Now, there are plenty of guided tours you can sign up for that may be of interest. For example, On Location Tours does a great one that includes stops at over 40 locations, and we imagine it’d be a lot of fun to pal around with other SATC fans on a tour bus.

If you’re more of an individualist or prefer to set your own pace, a self-guided walking tour may be more your thang. We like this one by FreeToursByFoot, which does a nice job of highlighting some of those favorite SATC moments.

For example, you could start at the flagship Tiffany and Co. (727 Fifth Avenue, between 56th and 57th St.), where Trey re-proses to Charlotte. And speaking of nuptials, hop on over to the gorgeous NYC Public Library (Fifth Avenue and 42nd St.), which is where Mr. Big and Carrie planned to get hitched. You can also pay homage to Carrie via a little shoe shopping at none other than Manolo Blahnik (31 W 54th St, between 5th and 6th Avenues).

Seinfeld

So Seinfeld was technically filmed in California, but the show itself was set in New York City, which is where you can find a lot of the TV show’s famous landmarks.

The number one must-hit spot, of course, is Monk’s Cafe, where Elaine, Jerry, George and Kramer spent way too much of their time. The cafe itself isn’t real, but the exterior of Tom’s Restaurant (2880 Broadway) is the filmed facade.

A second contender for where the crew spends most of their time is at Jerry’s Apartment, located at 129 West 81st Street, Apartment 5A. The outside of the apartment was actually filmed in Los Angeles, but it’s still cool to go to the location. Elaine’s apartment is located near Central Park at 447 Central Park West.

Two additional places you can venture to that are completely real (unlike Monk’s), is Kramer’s H&H Bagels (1551 2nd Ave), where he went on strike, or you could nab one of his favorite hot dogs at Gray’s Papaya (2090 Broadway), which is called “Papaya King” in the series.

If hot dogs and bagels aren’t your thing (I mean, they’re so New York, but we won’t judge you), perhaps you could slurp up some soup at Mendy’s (61 E 34th St) . This post by HuffPo has some other places you can visit.

Friends

This list would be so remiss without Friends. Like SATC, there’s a guided tour you can take with On Location Tours, which makes everything super easy for you. Note that Friends was filmed in California, but many of the exterior shots were filmed in NYC to keep that Big Apple vibe.

For those who prefer to do a self-guided tour, we’ve got your back. We recommend started at Pulitzer Fountain in Central Park (Grand Army Plaza at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue), which you’ll recognize from the opening credits. While this wasn’t the actual shooting location, the California fountain it was shot in is a replica of the original.

We’re bummed to inform you that Central Perk, the coffee shop where Joey, Monica, Chandler, Phoebe and Rachel spent a lot of time, isn’t real. They actually created a pop up shop, which closed in about a year’s time. Don’t fret, though. You can stop by the Solow Building (9 W 57th St #45), where Chandler worked, or hit up Lucille Lortel Theater (121 Christopher St), where Joey put on an off-Broadway performance.

Another cool spot to hit up is the Corner of Bedford and Grove, which is the apartment building where all six characters dwelled.

Stay tuned for part three of the series!

By Wendy Rose Gould